industrial buildings
The Next Evolution of
WAREHOUSES Can heating bills reach $0?
By Peter Saunders
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www.canadianconsultingengineer.com
CCE JanFeb 2020_AMS.indd 16
A history of efficiency As mentioned, East Port already has experience with this type of effort, having monitored and measured its tenants’ energy consumption and learned in-depth about which features they do or do not use. “We try to keep ahead of the market,” says Judy Wall, president of East Port, whose experience in the real estate industry began at Purdy’s Wharf in Halifax, the earliest commercial building in North America to use seawater for cooling. “We first sought Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for a warehouse more than 10 years ago. The building itself is really just a shell—the question is how to put enough features in it to earn effective LEED points while keeping costs in line with the market.” And indeed, the company developed Canada’s first LEED-certified multi-tenant warehouse in 2008, following up with five more in the suc-
ceeding six years in Halifax and Mount Pearl, N.L. East Port also built a LEED-certified suburban office building in Halifax and the first LEED Gold-certified office building in St. John’s, N.L. “We now have years of operations showing reduced energy use,” says Wall. “Our previous buildings have led us to this net-zero heating energy point.” Given such a track record, she felt it would be possible to create a comfortable warehouse where tenants would pay no central heating bills. This was important because building to the ZCB standard involved a 10 to 15% premium in costs, but the resulting higher rents could be justified to
Solar panels installed at the optimal angle for sunlight can suffer from wind uplift, so East Port Properties ensured the roof provided sufficient strength.
Photos courtesy East Port Properties
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hen you think about energyefficient buildings, sprawling warehouses probably don’t come to mind. With the new Wilkinson Warehouses in Dartmouth, N.S., however, East Port Properties is using consulting engineering expertise to change that perception, to the financial benefit of its tenants. As a third-party property developer and manager, East Port recently joined the Canada Green Building Council’s (CaGBC’s) Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) initiative to combine its own knowledge of and experience with efficient warehouse design with the council's new certification standard. There are 16 projects in the initiative, but the warehouse is the program’s only industrial building to date. The Wilkinson development, still in progress, has been planned as a series of four to five multi-tenant warehouse buildings, totalling approximately 300,000 sf of space. The first of these, a 65,000-sf facility at 355 Wilkinson Avenue, is already up and running. It was designed in partnership with Efficiency Nova Scotia with a focus on keeping its tenants’ operating costs as low as possible. The effort also paid off by successfully earning CaGBC’s ZCB Design certification. East Port’s project team, which has a history of working together, included primary consulting engineer Gary Ruitenberg, P.Eng., mechanical engineer Barber Engineering Services, structural engineer Laurence Smith, electrical engineer MCW and builder Lindsay Construction.
January/February 2020
2020-02-03 7:36 AM
